childhood

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The state of being a child.

   To our own surprise, our 40-year study of 1,000 children revealed that childhood self-control strongly predicts adult success, in people of high or low intelligence, in rich or poor, and does so throughout the entire population, with a step change in health, wealth, and social success at every level of self-control.

2. 2
   noun

   The time during which one is a child, from between infancy and puberty.

   He stood transfixed before the unaccustomed view of London at night time, a vast panorama which reminded him […] of some wood engravings far off and magical, in a printshop in his childhood.

3. 3
   noun

   The early stages of development of something.

   the childhood of our joy

4. 4
   noun

   the state of a child between infancy and adolescence

5. 5
   noun

   the time of person's life when they are a child

Etymology

From Middle English childhode, childhod, from Old English ċildhād (“childhood”). By surface analysis, child + -hood. Compare dialectal Dutch kindheid (“childishness”), German Low German Kinnerheid (“childhood”), and German Kindheit (“childhood”).